The Historical Perspective

1
The Historical Perspective

• Diane E. Newby, Ed.D.
• Professor

2
Child Development and History

• If teachers follow Expanding Environments Model,
  children receive no historical content until 4th
  grade. This is changing for some states.
  Rejecting Piagets preoperational, concrete
  operational, formal thought theories of cognitive
  development.
• Children gradually develop the ability to
  understand the past rather than in stages.
• Research shows children younger than 8 years can
  learn historical concepts.
• First graders are able to place in sequence
  pictures and explain their rational for doing so
  - pictures and drawings - either in long ago 1772
  or close to now 2004 (Barton and Levstik 1996).

3

• Kindergarteners, first and second graders have no
  sense of what dates mean.
• Beginning in fourth grade, dates are useful to
  children, although not until fifth or sixth grade
  do children use dates to identify pictures
  accurately.
• Young children perceive, first there were
  pioneers, then there were cities.
• It is difficult for them to perceive that while
  pioneers were building log cabins in the 1880s,
  large cities were being built in other
  geographical areas.

4
Teaching History and the Concept of Time

• Learning about history requires that children
  develop a sense of the passage of time.
• Use childrens actual experiences to help them
  develop a sense of the passage of time.
• What did you do today?
• How many days has it been since Janices
  birthday?
• Do you remember what we did to celebrate
  Presidents Day?

5
Developing the Concept of Time

• By age 5, children can tell what day it is and
  will use general terms such as wintertime before
  they will use the general terms
• today
• before
• in a few days
• Routines teach time.

6
Developing the Concept of Time

• What can you do this year that you could not do
  last year?
• Start a history booklet in the beginning of the
  year for each child. Include
• snapshots
• pieces of work the child has completed
• Paintings or stories created by the child

7
Developing the Concept of Time

• Children will not be able to measure time
  conventionally until after age 8 or 9.
• Use an hourglass to see if they can wash the
  tables after art work, before the sand empties
  into the other half of the glass.

8
Hands-on History Activities

• These activities allow students to become active
  learners of history inside the classroom.
  Children learn best when they play a part of what
  they learn.
• Mystery Center
• Visual Resources
• Pictorial Books
• Art/Paintings and Drawings
• Oral History/Story Time

9
Activities

• Holiday Timeline
• Family Trees
• Calendar
• Daily Schedules
• Picture Photo Album
• Cooking Experiences
• Musical Cues

10
Childrens Literature on Time

• Richard Scarys Best Times Ever A Book about
  Seasons
• Just a Minute
• Piggety Pig from Morning 'Til Night, Harriet
  Ziefert, David Prebenna
• All of Grandmothers Clocks, Sandra Ziegler
• Tell Me a Story Mama, Angela Johnson and David
  Soman
• My Grandmothers Clock, G. McCaughrean
• Grandma Susan Remembers, A. Morris

11
Integrate Timelines

• Students can make timelines using personal life
  events.
• Pictures, video clips, and drawings
• Famous person timelines
• Geographical place timeline
• Literature timelines

12
Standard 1 Sequence chronologically Eras
between 1620 - 1877 Benchmarks

• Early Elementary
• Use analog and digital clocks to tell time.
• Use weeks, months, and years as intervals of
  time.
• Distinguish between the past, present and future.
• Place events of t heir lives and the lives of
  others in chronological order.

• Later Elementary
• Measure chronological time by decades and
  centuries.
• Place major events in the development of their
  local community and the state of Michigan in
  chronological order.
• Place major events in the early history of the
  United States in chronological order.

13
Standard 1 Middle School Benchmarks

• Construct and interpret timelines of people and
  events from the history of Michigan and the
  United States through the era of Reconstruction
  and fro the history of regions of the world.
• Describe major factors that characterize the
  following eras in United States history
• meeting of three worlds from 1620
• colonization and settlement 1585-1763
• revolution and the new nation 1754-1815
• Civil War and Reconstruction 1850-1877
• Select a contemporary condition in Africa, Asia,
  Canada, Europe, and Latin America and trace some
  of the major historical origins of each.

14
TimeGrade Level ExpectationsEarly Elementary

• Kindergarten
• Use analog and digital clocks to tell time.
• Describe what a clock does
• Distinguish the purpose served by the hour,
  minute and second hands on the clock.
• Practice using words that describe time
• seconds
• minutes
• hours
• morning
• afternoon
• night

• First Grade
• Identify order and meaning of the display and
  numerals.
• Identify when the class does different activities
  during the day on a digital clock.
• Using a blank clock face can mark the face to s
  how a morning activity, an afternoon activity,
  and an evening activity.

15
AssessmentGrade Level Expectations

• What will student demonstrate?
• Given the units of second, minute. And hour.
  Students will arrange the units in order
  according to length from shortest to longest.

16
Web Sites

• The Life of Abraham Lincoln
• http//www.berwickacademy.org/lincoln/lincoln.htm
• How to Make a Timeline
• http//www.dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/timel
  ine.html

17
Concept of Change

• The study of history is the study of change.
• Change is universal.
• No matter where we live or how, change will be
  part of our lives.
• Encourage students to experience and observe
  change.
• School -Rearrange the classroom.
• Observe how the school building looked a few
  years ago.
• Neighborhood - Observe changes in the
  neighborhood - then and now.